NEWS BRIEF: With President Trump's Signature, Utah is Authorized to Receive over $445 Million in New DoD Spending for Fiscal 2026

With a strike of the pen, President Donald J. Trump last week authorized an estimated $445.5 million tied to military installations, programs, and defense activities in Utah.

That monetary figure is based on a Utah Money Watch review of Utah-specific line items within S.2296 — the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, recently passed legislation which authorized over $900 billion in nationwide spending for the U.S. Department of Defense (which Pres. Trump just signed into law).

This included expenses for all DoD military branches and agencies across the United States.

But for Utah, DoD-spending authorization for FY2026 was focused on military construction, National Guard facilities, installation modernization, research and development authorities, and operational programs with execution tied to Utah-based assets.

For DoD spending in the State of Utah, five actual projects were authorized across the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, Utah Air National Guard, and joint-service readiness initiatives via S.2296 , including:

• $272.0 million for Hill Air Force Base (two projects),
• $145.0 million for Utah Air National Guard work at Salt Lake City International Airport (two projects), and
• $28.5 million at Camp Williams for the U.S. Army.

Contextually, northern Utah's HAFB is a primary operational base for the F-35A Lightning II, the first operational F-35A base for the U.S., with initial aircraft arriving in 2015.

As such, the F-35A Lightning II is the tip of the spear when it comes to airborne combat.

Although S.2296 — the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, authorized over $900 billion in spending, Utah-linked authorizations in this new law represent not quite five-hundredths of one percent of total NDAA spending (0.05%) for FY226, clearly, a small share overall.

Nevertheless, I believe this $445.5 million represents meaningful implications for Utah’s defense workforce, contractors, and long-term military infrastructure footprint.

As with all NDAA legislation, however, the bill only authorizes spending but does not itself release funds.

Instead, actual dollars will flow only after subsequent appropriations legislation and agency-level execution, a process that often stretches across multiple fiscal years.

If Utahns (and organizations with Utah ties) want said authorizations to turn into executed dollars, I would closely watch the actions of two members of Utah's congressional delegation, namely

• U.S. Representative Blake Moore for House-side momentum and alignment, and
• U.S. Senator John Curtis as the Senate-side quarterback,

with both the true Utah-based leads for pressing DoD and congressional appropriators to fund and execute said Utah-linked projects.

Better yet, if you agree that the $445.5 million in authorized monies should be spent in Utah, I'd recommend reaching out to both elected officials via the links highlighted above.

Publisher’s Note

This writeup was originally published and distributed to our subscribers at approximately 2:25pm MT on Monday, 22 December 2025.

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